1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sending and receiving system, an image sending apparatus and an image receiving apparatus, and in particular, to a technology for automatically switching a communication mode of the image sending apparatus having a plurality of communication modes.
2. Description of the Related Art
When connecting a digital camera to an external device such as a personal computer, there are the cases where the digital camera is recognized as a mass storage device by the external device and the cases where it is recognized thereby as a camera such as a PC camera. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-271721 discloses that it is switched by an operation mode (a recording mode or a reproduction mode) of the camera or switched by key operation as to which device to be recognized as.
There is a digital camera having a mass storage mode and a Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) mode as communication modes for communicating with the external device and capable of having these modes selected by a user on a setup menu screen of the camera. In the case of this digital camera, it is recognized as a mass storage device (external recording medium) by the external device if the communication mode thereof is set at the mass storage mode. If set at the PTP mode, it is possible to select an image to be transferred by the camera and press a transfer button provided to the camera so as to send the selected image to the personal computer and so on.
In the case of using a digital print system (DPS) function wherein a digital camera having a mass storage mode and a PTP mode is connected to a printer and a desired image is transferred to the printer by pressing an image transfer button of the camera so as to be print-outputted by the printer, it is necessary to set the communication mode of the camera at the PTP mode by using a setup menu. However, there are problems that there is a high possibility of forgetting to set the communication mode of the camera at the PTP mode or making a mistake when using the DPS function, and that it takes time and effort to switch the communication mode because it must be set by using the setup menu, so that convenience as an original object of the DPS function cannot be implemented.
In the case where the camera itself automatically switches the communication mode to the mass storage mode or a PC camera mode depending on whether an operation state of the camera is a reproduction mode or a recording mode as with an imaging apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-271721, it is possible to omit a device which switches between the mass storage mode and the PC camera mode by using the setup menu of the camera. In this case, however, there are problems that it is necessary to manually switch an operation mode of the camera depending on whether to use the camera in the mass storage mode or in the PC camera mode, and that it is not possible to set the communication mode of the camera at a desired communication mode in the case where the relationship between the operation mode and communication mode of the camera is not grasped.